So two and a half months since I made a blog post and even
longer since I made one on the experience of Russia. Here is a catch up, but
unlike earlier catch up posts, this one will not be divided by dates. I wrote
this in piecemeal some beginning on the train from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
This post will be the end of my Moscow experience and the timing in some
paragraphs reflect the time I wrote them, not based on the end of October.
Most of our (my fellow trainees’/interns’ and my) days have
been spent in our own classes throughout the day getting trained for various
things. We had lessons in grammar to make sure that we knew the grammar we
would be teaching; we were given lessons in methodology; how to handle various
classes ranging from young learners (think kindergarten style class even if the
ages is a little wider range) to full adults; are they learning English for
pleasure, business, forced by parents, etc; do we have to teach to a specific
English test they are looking to take (perhaps a certain business test, a test
to study abroad in an English speaking country, a test when they graduate
high-school called YEGE – all subjects encompassing and students can add an
English portion if they want).
We were taught many different things throughout the day, and
then in the evenings we had to teach 8 times in the past 3 weeks: 6 in the
first 2 weeks and 2 times this past week. All the classes for the training
period were adult classes and I must say the students were a lot of fun. These
were broken down into their level of English as 1 Elementary class, 1
Pre-Intermediate, 2 Intermediate, and 2 Upper Intermediate for a total of 6
classes. The first 2 weeks we each taught every class once and then this last
week we taught 2 of the classes. I had one of the two upper int classes and one
of the two intermediate classes twice, and then the other 4 I only had once.
Sometimes we might talk to the students from other classes that we had
previously taught before classes began or after the class was over. The last
night a few of the students came to the bar next to Language Link where many
interns were having a “last night hurrah” and there were some good
conversations happening.
The lesson planning began really rough and I had my first
three days in a row so I was not able to learn from my mistakes before creating
my next lesson. However, for the second week I was able to take a nice long
look at my reviews and incorporate the suggestions and I was able to navigate
the lesson planning process better, so even though they graded harder the
further along we got, I still had higher grades which was nice. While some of
the lesson planning was a drag, overall it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed both
making lessons and teaching the classes.
As I mentioned above, the last night there was an intern
hurrah at Vokzal, the bar next to Language Link, where we had that first
Saturday get-together. It was a bittersweet moment as we were all glad to be
done with the ITP, but at the same time we knew that many were leaving the
following day and who knows if or when we’ll see these people that we became
bonded to during the past 4 weeks.
For those of you interns reading this, much love and I will
miss you all. I’d love to visit, and you’re always welcome to SPB (St.
Petersburg).
My mother-in-law’s stepson Andrei lives in Moscow and I
brought some things from the US that I was supposed to give him. Instead of
just a short meet-up he decided to invite me to his dacha to visit with his
friends as they celebrated the last weekend before school began, so my third weekend
in Moscow I went out to his dacha. Overall it was quite a nice dacha, but I
must say, their outhouse, while a little more than a wooden shack, had a bucket
that requires emptying every so often, in place of the hole in the ground that
Daria’s outhouse has in SPB. I prefer the hole, but alas. Andrei and his
friends were quite nice and many of them spoke enough English that I could talk
quite fine, and surprisingly it provided me with an opportunity to practice my
teaching as I did lots of error correction for pronunciation and missing verbs,
articles, or wrong words. They were quite thrilled to have the corrections and
for the ability to practice their English, although once again it left me with
little chance to learn Russian. Well one guy tried to teach me some swear
words, but I only remember one of them.
Friday night was basically a small fire in the woods, about
7 people, and a couple beers. Saturday night, however, was a much bigger event,
as it was “the party of the last weekend before school.” About 25-30 people
between the ages of 18-30 – not all in school, but they’re part of the young
crowd so they still go out – out in the woods, again with a fire, but also with
a makeshift table out of two-by-fours (or whatever their metric equivalent) and
a door off it’s hinges to house both a fully stocked bar and speakers and the
DJs equipment. Of course it helped that 2 of the people who live there are a
bar tender and a DJ in Moscow for their jobs. Getting the generator started for
it was quite the comical experience though. It as an American built Honda
generator, sold in Russia, with an instruction booklet in Italian, Dutch, and
German. At first they didn’t read which languages were in the book so they were
excited to have me try and help them start it since “I could read the booklet.”
Of course I couldn’t so we had to find other ways, did it wrong and by the time
we figured out how to do it, we had broken part of it.
It’s a good thing Russian men, yes the men, even in this
group which I would identify as more in the American style feminist, are good
at mechanics and stuff, even if they’re in brainy jobs. These guys do their own
car repair and maintenance; do their own plumbing, electricity, heating, and
the rest of the manual labor. Well, ok, so for the generator mechanics we had
to take it to someone’s dad who fixed it, and the party was able to begin.
I’m told, some people stayed out as late as 10am although
most left around 7am. Still, I even as much fun as I had, I left much earlier
than that and got a reasonable sleep, did some work Sunday afternoon, and
returned to the city. Of course my work was limited since even though I brought
my computer, I have the fortunate experience of having a new-old computer: my
brother’s old laptop to replace my old broken one. I had a trial period of MS
Word, which expired that Friday and I wasn’t able to download/order my new Word
until Tuesday or Wednesday when I got back to the city, work that required Word
was not achieved last weekend.
Sadly, while the ITP has been fun, we also had some plague
of some sort going through the office. About 6 or 7 people had it over the last
2 weeks. Out of 28 people, that’s a high number and I was one of those (un)fortunate
souls. I missed work both Tuesday and Wednesday laying in bed unable to do very
much. I’m just getting it all out of the way, you know. Giardia, and whatever
that sickness was, I figure I should be good for my quota now for the rest of
the year. I almost went to work Wednesday afternoon thinking I could make it
for half the day. Got dressed, almost out the door, and I buckled over from
stomach cramps so I went back to bed. I had actually been feeling sick Monday,
but I taught anyway, even while feeling faint. When I got my review on
Thursday, one of the nice compliments he gave me was, “well if that’s how you
felt and that’s how you taught, being sick could be good for your teaching. Not
that you want to be sick, but you did a great job.” Of course that’s my
paraphrase, but his compliment made up for the previous two days.
My homestay was also very nice to me during my entire stay.
Truly wonderful people that I will miss dearly. Bruce and Katy, I hope you are
reading this, but they reminded me a lot of you two and the kindness you showed
me that year in Turlock. It brought back some fond memories. So Maxim and
Tatiana sent me off with four chocolate bars (2 of their favorite type, and the
2 they learned that I like a lot while drinking tea), some grub for the
journey, and now some fond memories of my Moscow homestay.
I posted on Facebook, but I’ll do it here as well, 1 Sept is
called “knowledge day” because that’s when kids start school (well Monday since
it’s a Saturday). Even though it was the weekend there were festivities down in
the courtyard between our buildings where the kids gathered and there were
speeches and songs and other various things. It was only an hour or maybe a
little more, but quite a nice thing to listen to while packing. Sometimes I
ventured to the window and I could see smiles on the kids’ faces, even from the
17th floor. If only American kids were that excited about going to
school. I think many kindergartners are, but here even the older kids in 5th/6th
grade were excited. I didn’t see the teens (different school location), but I suspect
they have a similar angsty thought about returning. Oh well, still nice to see
people excited about learning and knowledge.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Chris Riordan from my internship
for loaning me “Game of Thrones” those last 3 weeks. An excellent book for
anyone who might be interested and a much better way to spend my time on the
Metro than my iPod. 806 pages completed in just under 3 weeks going back and
forth 40-45 minutes on the Metro (and I didn’t even get much done while sick
because I couldn’t focus that long; additionally I’d like to mention that I
travelled 15.4 miles in 40 minutes to work at the cost of about 85-90 cents). I
won’t give any details, but let’s say I was enthralled and it was very hard to
continue lesson planning at home after work, but I was able to keep to my
schedule well. Of course, Chris and I also bonded over other things like progressive
metal such as Tool, Dream Theater, and a new one he showed me I want to say
Porcupine Tree, but I can’t look it up on the internet right now. I may verify
before posting or maybe not. As we said last night, his and my many discussions
about various things, we are братъя,
brothers.
Well, ta for now, and again much love to all my fellow
interns that are either remaining in Moscow or travelling to some other far off
city. May your travels be safe, your teaching productive, and your experiences
wonderful. And many, many thanks to my homestay Maxim and Tatiana. They were
extremely kind and hospitable.
PS. I had a post thought as I am riding the train from
Moskva to Piter. Another reason why the US needs to adopt more trains,
especially high-speed, for transportation. Sure, trains may not be productive
for the person who needs to get between LA and NY very fast, but for the
shorter trips, it could certainly prove useful. Even SF to LA could be done by
train instead of flight (a good high-speed might be able to do it in about the
same time if you consider the time one must wait at the airport, but even if it
takes an hour more, honestly I think we could all adjust.
But as to my reasons I say first and foremost, give me the
legroom. I have great legroom on this train. I can stretch out relax, sit
comfortably, most side to side a little. I can get up, stretch my legs, walk
around, walk to the food car, etc. I mean if it were me, and I was going on a
business trip, I’d certainly take the extra hour or two spent travelling for
the extra comfort on a good high-speed rail. And as I’ve said, both for public
transportation in general, trains and metros are so much nicer than driving
anyway. But, yeah, plenty of space to get business work done, honestly a train
ticket is still cheaper than the plane ticket and if you’re buying business
class. Sure it’s the company, but hey the company could save money, you could
still ride in comfort. Seems like a win for everyone but the airlines (who as
transportation companies more often in debt anyway, maybe only a few should
stay in the air and most turn toward ground travel. They might save themselves
money too).
